Girl Scout cookies are back in season

Calling all Thin Mint addicts: Girl Scout cookie season is here again.Girl Scouts began knocking on doors to take orders in the Terrebonne and Lafourche area Friday. Cookies will arrive for delivery beginning March 1, and cookie-booth sales at area stores will be held March 1-17.Girl Scouts in south Lafourche kicked off their sale with a rally in Golden Meadow Saturday, said Carol Atkinson, cookie manager for the region. The rallies are designed to get girls excited and prepared for the sale with cookie tastings, games, and safety, marketing and money-management tips.Atkinson said the girls are excited each year when the cookie sale comes around. Last year, girls from Larose to Golden Meadow sold more than 14,000 boxes of cookies, she said.“They had a blast,” Atkinson said. “They’re hopefully out there taking cookie orders right now.”This year brings two changes for Girl Scouts and their customers.Cookies have increased in price to $4 per box, with the money due upon delivery.It also marks the first time in more than 10 years that the Girl Scouts have changed the packaging on their cookies, said Marianne Addy, a spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts Louisiana East.The new packaging is meant to showcase the financial literacy and entrepreneurship that cookie sales teach Girl Scouts.Cookies are a serious business for the Girl Scouts. First licensed and sold nationally more than 70 years ago, today about 200 million boxes are sold each year.“The Girl Scout Cookie Program is the largest girl-led financial literacy program in the country,” said Alisha Moore, vice president of sales at Girl Scouts Louisiana East. Each booth sale is almost like a small business, Addy said. Girls manage a cash box and are responsible for putting up signs and getting the word out to market their sale.Last year, Girl Scouts in southeast Louisiana sold more than 1.25 million boxes of cookies, Moore said, with all proceeds staying local to help southeast Louisiana Girl Scout troops.About 200 Girl Scouts sold 500 boxes or more.While the cookie sale is a voluntary program, Addy said regionally about 83 percent of Girl Scouts participate. Many troops use cookie-sales proceeds to take field trips, go camping or pay for projects. Girls can also earn business badges for their cookie-related accomplishments.“None of the proceeds leave the local community,” Addy said. “It remains within the troops and is one of their biggest sources of income.”This year’s cookies will include eight varieties: Thin Mints, Samoas, Trefoils, Tagalongs, Do-Si-Dos, Dulce de Leche, Thank You Berry Munch and Savannah Smiles.Don’t know a Girl Scout? Girl Scouts have branched out into new technology to promote cookie sales.You can download the Girl Scouts’ Cookie Locator mobile app for iPhone or Android to find a cookie sale near you. You can also log onto www.girlscoutcookies.org and enter your ZIP code to find a site or call **GSCOOKIES (**472665437) from your cell phone.

Nikki Buskey can be reached at 857-2205 or nicole.buskey@houmatoday.com.

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